Boys and puberty – what a topic. We’re told that only two people in the history of planet earth got to skip puberty, so it’s obviously a phenomenon which has been afflicting earth children since … forever.
We’re still trying to figure it out, but the task was made much easier around 1948 when Dr. James M. Tanner, a British pediatric endocrinologist trained in the U.S., was asked to Read more→
The original study of childhood growth and maturity done by Dr. Tanner at the Harpenden orphanage in England during WWII has been replicated and verified many times since then.
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Pretty much the second question you field from a parent during your pediatric clerkship in medical school (right after “what’s this yukky looking rash”) is: “Do you think (insert name here) is growing well enough?” or, some equivalent question.
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It’s hard to believe but less than eighty years ago humanity didn’t even have a clue about nutrition let alone what constituted adequate nutrition for a child!
During the war, there were developing so many refugee children that needed to be cared for by institutions that Great Britan decided to undertake a simple study about what “growth” looked like in children. Nothing was known about that of substance either.
Dr. James Mourilyan Tanner was asked to take over a nutrition study of institutionalized children with the intent of seeing to it that the children still grew well—whatever “well” looked like. He agreed to do it, used the scientific method, devised what is now still the definitive study on growth and puberty (the Tanner Scale) and the rest is history.
This series of posts is all about that. What it is, how it came to be, how it’s used and what we know about the study of puberty.
This year (2015) the U.S. has suffered a huge increase in Measles. An increase unlike any other in recent years! The blame for much of it has been directly placed at the feet of California residents who exercised a “personal belief” exemption in the state’s childhood immunization requirements.
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I ran across a poignant article while researching the difficult topic of how parents should use the internet to gain medical information – truly, it sounds simple BUT IT’S NOT.
There is a mind-blowing amount of information exposed by a search on Google for about any medical condition! Unfortunately, there is also an incredible amount of crap exposed in that same search!
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Trying to catch up on all the recent research findings about infant nutrition, specifically breastfeeding, we’ve already described a fair number of new findings. We’ll conclude today with a fairly comprehensive listing of new recommendations. Read more→
One of the most common topics for medical articles these days (besides immunizations) is breast feeding. There’s really a lot of them. It’s almost like people are trying to make a point.
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Neuroscientist Jeff Iliff’s sleep research follows two main paths: The first is the exploration of how the brain’s support cells, called glia, contribute to maintaining the proper environment for neuronal function and how their failure in conditions like vascular dementia, stroke, and traumatic brain injury leads to neurodegeneration.
The second seeks to define the basic cellular mechanisms by which brain blood flow is coordinated up and down the vascular tree. A lot to do with sleep.
Now an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, Jeff was a part of a University of Rochester Medical Center team that discovered a brain cleansing system, which they dubbed the “glymphatic system.”
Parenting advice – something that we all probably need at one time or another; but, something that is awfully easy to get tired of.
Especially with the arrival of a new baby, well-meaning-advice-givers seem to come out of the woodwork; AND, if you’ve “registered” anywhere online (more…)
If you thought that you got a lot of parenting advice from people BEFORE the baby was born, just wait and see how many “well wishers” make contact with you after the little one arrives in order to give you the benefit of their extensive experience.
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